I loved the idea of Pascalle Burton’s Letter.Box.Stamp.Collect. when I first heard about it. As I knew I would be overseas at the time of the Queensland Poetry Festival, I decided to take the ‘letter’ and ‘stamp’ portions of her concept literally and send her a postcard. The poem I chose is Yoghurt, which is circular in nature as it ends where it begins, like the ouroboros serpent swallowing its tale. I picked up the postcard in Portland and posted it in the tiny town of Fairfax, California, because that is the nature of travel. Is travel circular in nature too? Because I don’t want to come home.

]]>https://letterboxingqpf.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/circular-poetry-contributor-sally-browne/feed/2Sally BrownepascalleburtonSally BrowneSally Browne 001Circular Poetry Contributor: Chris Lynchhttps://letterboxingqpf.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/circular-poetry-contributor-chris-lynch/
https://letterboxingqpf.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/circular-poetry-contributor-chris-lynch/#commentsWed, 28 Aug 2013 21:39:41 +0000http://letterboxingqpf.wordpress.com/?p=353Continue reading →]]>This contribution to the Letter.Box.Stamp.Collect. project is from poet Chris Lynch with his piece Circumlocution. Chris says this of the connection between the project and the poem:

The whole poem came to me in that space between sleep and waking, and perhaps because of that reminds me of a half-remembered dream, an echo, sehnsucht.

Chris is author of the micro-collection Bashed Flat by Heaven in Brisbane New Voices II and you can find more of Chris’ work at his website.

Circumlocution by Chris Lynch

]]>https://letterboxingqpf.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/circular-poetry-contributor-chris-lynch/feed/1Chris Lynch copypascalleburtonChris Lynch copyCircular Poetry Contributor: Trudie Murrellhttps://letterboxingqpf.wordpress.com/2013/08/16/circular-poetry-contributor-trudie-murrell/
https://letterboxingqpf.wordpress.com/2013/08/16/circular-poetry-contributor-trudie-murrell/#commentsFri, 16 Aug 2013 03:57:25 +0000http://letterboxingqpf.wordpress.com/?p=345Continue reading →]]>This contribution to the Letter.Box.Stamp.Collect. project is from poet Trudie Murrell with her piece Father Son Cycle. Trudie says of the connection between the piece and the project:

I wrote this poem when reflecting on my son’s first year and complex shifts that occurred between my husband, my son and myself. Now as he nears adolescence and asserts his place in the world in different ways, I go back to it. I liked the circular nature of the subject material for this project but when I read that you were encouraging poets to experiment with form I decided to try and stretch myself to include a visual aspect to the poem as well. I am not a technically predisposed person and, had I the skill, I would have liked the text to be circular in a handwritten font with a beautifully patterned background with the texture of fine hand made paper. Think antique Victorian etsy printing press. In the adventure that unfolded while I tried to achieve that goal I found some very administrative looking flow charts. The description for the overlapping Venn diagram model that I eventually used talked of each circle being a separate point on its own but having a shared relationship with the main circle, which resonated with me, so I chose it. The font was an attempt at softening and personalising the text. Looking at the poem now I am reminded of circular embroidery frames and sayings stitched on cushions. I also notice that the text reads from top to bottom and then left to right like making a sign of the cross but I think that comes from a far more subliminal place than intention.

]]>https://letterboxingqpf.wordpress.com/2013/08/16/circular-poetry-contributor-trudie-murrell/feed/1Trudie MurrellpascalleburtonTrudie MurrellCircular Poetry Contributor: Andrew Galanhttps://letterboxingqpf.wordpress.com/2013/08/12/circular-poetry-contributor-andrew-galan/
https://letterboxingqpf.wordpress.com/2013/08/12/circular-poetry-contributor-andrew-galan/#commentsMon, 12 Aug 2013 21:44:18 +0000http://letterboxingqpf.wordpress.com/?p=340Continue reading →]]>This next contribution to the Letter.Box.Stamp.Collect. project is from performance poet Andrew Galan with his poem c.1932. Andrew says of the connection between the poem and the project:

As I travelled through the United States, United Kingdom and Spain from early-April to late-July this year I knew I would be returning home and possibly never visiting any of these countries again. So I carried notebooks into all the galleries and museums I visited. I could write notes about things I saw, jot down my reactions, record facts and concepts that interested me. I particularly enjoyed the thought of putting together poems based on series of artworks as I discovered them in different galleries. I also liked learning bits and pieces about the drivers behind artists and artistic movements. The note that, “chance…represented a release from the constraints of the rational world.” The note stating, “Realism became the point where art and propaganda met.” Another, “That substantial areas of the canvas have been left blank.” And, “A sense of the scene’s impact in the artist’s imagination…painting from memory rather than life was instrumental in achieving this.” I brought all these words home. This poem formed from one such reminder scrawled awkwardly into a notebook on level two of the Tate Modern in the UK.

]]>https://letterboxingqpf.wordpress.com/2013/08/12/circular-poetry-contributor-andrew-galan/feed/1pascalleburtonCircular Poetry Contributor: Eleanor Jacksonhttps://letterboxingqpf.wordpress.com/2013/08/06/circular-poetry-contributor-eleanor-jackson/
https://letterboxingqpf.wordpress.com/2013/08/06/circular-poetry-contributor-eleanor-jackson/#commentsTue, 06 Aug 2013 21:46:43 +0000http://letterboxingqpf.wordpress.com/?p=271Continue reading →]]>The next contribution to the Letter.Box.Stamp.Collect. project is from poet and performer Eleanor Jackson with her piece, Circle Work. Eleanor says of the connection between the project and the piece:

Originally, I started to lay out this poem in a circular design, hoping that the effect of reading it would mimic somewhat the experience of doing ‘donuts’ in a 4WD. Unfortunately, even I found it more nausea inducing than fun and knew that the stylistic change wasn’t really ‘me’, even if it would have reflected the piece somewhat better.

In the main, I wanted to take part in Letter.Box.Stamp.Collect for its reflection of the Queensland poetry community itself – there’s a wonderful sense of connection and community, a kind of ‘circle of colleagues’ that has been such a defining feature of my move to Brisbane. Seeing the works emerging has felt so tantalising, like watching a fun party from over the back fence of another house.

More generally, the piece is a reminder of a time when someone tried to teach me something of the Australian ‘country’, a place where I had nominally grown up, but never felt really a part of. For this person, there was a rite of passage to the teenage distraction of ‘circle work’, one that I had missed out on by being too much of a ‘girl’. It wasn’t for me; I always felt a square peg in a round hole.

As a member of the Queensland Poetry Festival Program committee, Eleanor will appear in various guises throughout the festival, such as MC for sessions or having work featured in The Star Folder session and you can find more of her work at her blog.

Circle Work

Because I have to learn to stop being such a pussy behind the wheel, he takes me to Lowey’s back paddock, to throw up plumes of dust from behind our ridiculous, oversized, faux-4WD. Gleefully, he removes the traction and the rental car, which was probably designed specifically for nipping between Chadstone and Carey in high-riding suburban style, curls dirty ribbons of ochre from its back wheels as I turn, panicked and then girlish-devilish, spirals. We’re in a bowl of dust and my hair whips into my mouth as one full turn threatens disequilibrium and nausea, pull it round, you’re not going to tip. There’s wreath after wreath of dust and that noise I can hear? That howl? That’s coming from me. After a while, three guys in a dinted silver Nissan lap the edges of the paddock, tooting their horn, circling their index fingers in the air, slapping the sides of the car: there’s shit-all to do in this town. Lowey’s wife, unaware of her husband’s offer for us to use the paddock, comes out and stands at one edge of the tussocky grass, hands resolutely on ample hips, until we sheepishly go over to explain the dissipating clouds of red dust and the terrified pack of galahs that just screamed and shat over her clothesline. She doesn’t look impressed but she returns to the little corrugated roof house with its big wraparound veranda, says there’s beer in the back fridge when you’re done.

This South-East Queensland collection attempts to capture the overlay of private moments with culturally important public spaces. Both constantly present, our daily lives seem to cycle between these two concepts – ourselves overlaid on our surroundings, and in that between space can be an uneasy tension of contextless feelings and silent loneliness.

Alinta has some new fiction in the upcoming Tincture Journal and you can find more of her work on her under-construction website.

]]>https://letterboxingqpf.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/circular-poetry-contributor-heinz-riegler/feed/2IN THE ABSENCE OF WORDSpascalleburtonIN THE ABSENCE OF WORDSCircular Poetry Contributor: Leighton Craighttps://letterboxingqpf.wordpress.com/2013/07/28/circular-poetry-contributor-leighton-craig/
https://letterboxingqpf.wordpress.com/2013/07/28/circular-poetry-contributor-leighton-craig/#commentsSun, 28 Jul 2013 11:36:02 +0000http://letterboxingqpf.wordpress.com/?p=291This audiovisual contribution to the Letter.Box.Stamp.Collect. project is from multidisciplinary artist Leighton Craig. Leighton also performs in Primitive Motion with Sandra Selig and you can find more of his work at his blog.